Open AccessEvaluation of anatomical structure and non-uniform distribution of imaging agent in near-infrared fluorescence-enhanced optical tomography
Author(s) -
Amit Kumar Sahu,
Ranadhir Roy,
Amit Joshi,
Eva M. SevickMuraca
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/opex.13.010182
Subject(s) - fluorophore , diffuse optical imaging , optics , fluorescence , contrast (vision) , focus (optics) , materials science , fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy , image quality , tomography , optical imaging , biomedical engineering , computer science , physics , artificial intelligence , medicine , image (mathematics)
To date, the assessment of fluorescence-enhanced optical imaging has not been performed owing to (i) the lack of tools necessary for objective assessment of image quality (OAIQ), and (ii) the difficulty to test an untested diagnostic contrast agent in patient studies. Herein, we focus upon the development of a framework for OAIQ which includes a model to simulate both natural tissue heterogeneity as well as heterogeneous distribution of a molecularly targeted fluorophore. Specifically, we use a novel tomographic algorithm previously developed and validated in our laboratory (Roy and Sevick-Muraca, IEEE Trans. Med. Imaging, 2005). Our results show that image generation is (i) unaffected by normal anatomical heterogeneity manifested in endogenous tissue optical properties of absorption and scattering, and (ii) restricted by heterogeneous distribution of fluorophore in the background as the contrast is decreased.